On dismissing Amrinder Singh,the Services batsman,Kerala fast bowler Sony Cheruvathur performs a leap of joy to celebrate his first five-wicket haul of the season one that will also give him the man-of-the-match award in the Plate division match between Kerala and Services. The track spikes that propel his jump are custom made gold with funky high top sides and a prominent red swoosh along the front. The spikes though belong to S Sreesanth,currently playing for the national team against New Zealand. Sree has been giving me his shoes since 2007 when he got his shoe contract. Whenever I have an important match like the first of a season,I wear them. We have different shoe sizes,but they have always fitted me perfectly. I think they are lucky for me! While Cheruvathur,took home the man-of-the-match award with his bowling figures of 5/78 and his maiden first class half century,he says Sreesanth should have equal reason to be happy. He claims that whenver he does well,Sree tends to do well in his match as well. When I took my debut first class five wicket haul against Goa in 2006,Sree was in South Africa playing for India,where he also took five wickets. Last year when Sree had made a come-back into the national team in the Sri Lanka series,I was playing against J&K in Jammu. He came all the way to Jammu and gave another pair of spikes. I took 10 wickets in that match and within a few days,Sree also took six wickets at Kanpur, he says. So New Zealand had better watch out, he adds with a grin. The oldest in the Kerala squad at 32,and perhaps the most genial member in it,Sony says the need to play a good game and get along with everyone is more important than winning at any cost. Maybe it is because of the way I got into the game. I started because I loved the sense of playing with others, he says. Growing up in Allepy,Sonys neighborhood wound itself around idyllic backwaters,but had few cricket grounds or facilities. I would play tennis ball cricket in my backyard. I loved the game but had no idea how to proceed to the next level. It was only at 18,that Cheruvathur joined his first cricket club in Ernakulam. And that was where he first met a fourteen-year-old Sreesanth whom he describes,raising his face down palm somewhere in the region of his waist,as only this high,but already giving batsmen the glare after a delivery. Within a year of his formal entry,Cheruvathur was playing for the Kerala U-19,and then was fast-tracked into the state side and made his debut for Kerala in the 2001/02 season. Ranji matches proved to be far more difficult proposition. Although Sreesanth was four years younger to Sony,he made his debut a year before him in 2002 For the first few years of playing first class cricket,Sony was merely a fellow traveller with the Kerala side-serving drinks and only playing the odd match while Sreesanth went from strength to strength. Sony says the reason was due to a lack of self belief But that was the time when Sree would tell me cheta you need to keep your hopes up. Even today I tell youngsters in the side where the difference in Sreesanth lies. He trully believed he is meant to play for India. Brief scores: Kerala 454 & 7/0 drew with Services 407 ( Soumyaranjan Swain 130,Yashpal Singh 66,Sony Cheruvathur 5/72) Points: Kerala 3,Services 1
